Wireless communication systems generally include a plurality of communication devices, such as mobile or portable transmitting subscriber units that are located in multiple sites. Each site may include a set of base stations and/or receivers for communicating information such as voice, data, control, and network management traffic between the communication devices and with other base stations and/or receivers. The wireless communication systems may include a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication system comprising M2M communications between the transmitting subscriber units. The M2M communications refer to wireless or wired communications between transmitting subscriber units. Such transmitting subscriber units are also known as M2M communication devices. The M2M communications may be transmitted over a narrowband channel or a broadband channel. A broadband channel is a channel that supports high bit-rate transmissions and a narrowband channel is a channel that supports low bit-rate transmissions. The public safety environment more commonly utilizes narrowband channels for communication as the narrowband channels are currently more cost effective.
Narrowband channels can support sufficient throughput for M2M communications between small groups of M2M communication devices. However, narrowband channels cannot provide sufficient throughput for M2M communications between large groups of M2M communication devices distributed over a large metropolitan area as the narrowband channels can only support low bit-rate transmissions.
Accordingly, there is a need to improve the capacity of a narrowband channel for providing sufficient throughput for M2M communications between large groups of M2M communication devices or to provide more efficient use of broadband channels.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure.
The method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.